Fury as energy firm bosses pocket huge pay hikes as household bills soar in cost of living crisis
FAT cat energy chiefs were paid tens of millions last year – as British households faced soaring bills.
Median pay packets for FTSE 100 CEOs hit a whopping £4m in 2022, new research from the High Pay Centre think tank found median pay found – the highest in five years.
Chiefs at BP and Shell were among the top ten best paid bosses.
BP’s Bernard Looney doubled his earnings to a staggering £10.03m, while now-former Shell boss Ben van Beurden bagged £9.7m pre-tax.
AstraZeneca chief Pascal Soriot topped the chart at £15.32m, followed by BAE Systems boss Charles Woodburn at £10.69m.
The median FTSE 100 CEO now rakes in 118 times the median full time worker, up from 79 times in 2020.
High Pay Centre Director, Luke Hildyard, said: “At a time when so many households are struggling with living costs, an economic model that prioritises a half a million pound pay rise for executives who are already multi-millionaires is surely going wrong somewhere.
“How major employers distribute the wealth that their workforce creates has a big impact on people’s living standards.” Trade union bosses last night accused ministers of allowing fat cat salaries to fuel inflation – while insisting that public sector workers should only have modest pay rises.
GMB General Secretary Gary Smith said: “Throughout 2022, working people across the UK were desperately struggling with the cost of living crisis.
“If Ministers genuinely think high wages are going to cause spiralling inflation, they probably need to think about curbing pay at the top of the tree, rather than everyone else.” Downing Street shot down the accusation, arguing “private sector wage rises are tracking in line with public sector wages”.
And they refused to say that companies should reign in their splurges – and it was up to firms to decide what to pay staff.
A No10 spokesperson said: “It will be shareholders that hold companies to account and anyone that’s paid significantly high salaries will likely be expected to justify them, particularly at a time when others are struggling.
“But fundamentally we do not dictate to private sector companies how they pay their staff.
“For the government’s part we are doing everything we can to tackle inflation.”
It comes as consultancy firm Cornwall Insight predicted that gas and electricity bills could drop slightly to £1,926 from October.
Regulator Ofgem will announce the new energy price cap on Friday, which will give families an estimated energy bill for the next three months.
But the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has warned few families will feel better off if the fall goes ahead.
A Shell spokesperson said: “Our executive remuneration is benchmarked against a broad range of European multinational companies.
“Data over the last ten years show that, on the basis of delivery against our targets, our senior executives are paid competitively.”